Hauntings at the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton

Museums are known for holding all sorts of important objects.  Some museums, however, hold something not usually visible… something of the spiritual realm.  These places are fertile grounds for folklore to take root.

Such is the case with the United State Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

Come hear the personal experiences of famed author of Ohio ghost tales, Ms. Chris Woodyard.  Her renowned 5-part series, Haunted Ohio, introduced many Ohioans to folktales which spring forth from our backyards.  In today’s episode, she offers keen insights into the ghostly sightings at the largest military aviation museum in the world.

Come hear the heart wrenching true tale of a group of men, who gave all they had in support of our freedom.  Many believe their spirits can still be found near parts of the wreckage of their WWII B-24D bomber.

We owe all veterans and active military members a debt of service.  Let us remember their sacrifices as we approach Veterans Day on November 11.

If you enjoy this episode, please rate, review and subscribe to Ohio Folklore on your chosen podcast platform.  You can also find Ohio Folklore at:

Ohiofolklore.com

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And as always, keep wondering…

A special thanks to author Chris Woodyard for her participation in today’s episode.  You can find her extensive collection of ghostly tales at her website here: http://hauntedohiobooks.com/ 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Ohio folklore. I'm your host Melissa Davies. Today, we're exploring one venerable Ohio institution that stands as the oldest and largest military aviation museum in the world. More than a million visitors pass through its doors every year to marvel at the history contained within. They come to see famed aircraft, spanning from the early fliers of the Wright brothers to today's most advanced nuclear armed supersonic bombers. They come to walk in the steps of former presidents as they step aboard retired Air Force ones. They come to see the Apollo 15 Command Module, which once orbited the moon 74 times, they come to lay eyes on the one and only Memphis Belle. While she wants helped defeat Nazi Germany. She now rests in glory, a testament to what we can achieve, not only in aviation, but in the cause for freedom. The reason so many of us visit this hallowed space are too numerous to count. With a current capacity of more than 1 million square feet, one can spend days perusing exhibits of monumental importance. All this and admission is free. What a jewel we have in this museum. All are welcome. All can come wonder at how learning to fly changed us as a people. It changed the way we traveled and the way we fought wars. It changed our perspective on the world, bringing faraway lands to within a day or twos journey among the clouds. I'm talking about the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Many Ohioans have visited the National Museum more than once. With so much to see it's no wonder so many visitors or repeat guests, yet for a small number of people, including visitors, staff and volunteers, some folks bear witness to strange and inexplicable experiences. It seems certain exhibits about a half dozen retain a kind of spiritual energy. But unexplained noises, moans and whispers emanate from the still craft. mysterious lights hover and sway. Once the busyness of crowds dies down at the museum's close each day, and the lights are turned low. night guards and cleaning crew are prone to catching glimpses of transparent figures. Some seated in cockpits, others wandering the cavernous spaces. The claims of ghostly sightings are many they span decades. Like most folktales these spirits stories carry deep emotional impact. They offer painful lessons and direction for our own life's journeys. Let's start our introduction to this monumental location by hearing from an expert in all things haunted and our great state. Since at least the early 90s Chris Woodard has held the title of one of Ohio's most beloved authors of ghost tales, many of you undoubtedly devoured her five volume series called haunted Ohio. It remains the quintessential reference on ghostly Ohio lore. She was born and raised in the Columbus area, but now has lived in Dayton for many years. She is what you might call a sensitive, having had unexplained spiritual experiences throughout her life. How lucky for us that she decided to share them through her writings. You can check out all her works at haunted Ohio books.com. Her enthusiasm for what may exist beyond the veil is deep and abiding. Luckily, she agreed to an interview for today's episode. Come hear her story. I was so thrilled to see your little excerpts on the United States Air Force Museum there in Dayton. And if I understand right, you are a local today. Yes. Yeah. Okay, maybe that adds a little more significance to them. Yeah, a little bit, although I never go there. I don't like it. It's not comfortable. Yeah, I think I had read that. So it really gives us difficult vibe. Are you there? Very much. So as one woman, the one woman who took me through when I did the first, I wrote it in haunted Ohio to I wrote a chapter on the ghosts at the Air Force Museum. And she said, these are warbirds. There's 1000s of hands has passed through, you know, around these machines, or there's been deaths or there's been injuries. It's got to leave a mark. So it's a very uncomfortable place. Yeah. And even in comparison to the many locations you've done to you would say, well, it's the it's the kind of play. I mean, there's a lot of places that make me uncomfortable. Collingwood Art Center, the Ohio State Reformatory, those are sort of the tops of my terror list. Because they make me so tired and uncomfortable. But I realized, just Yes, come and they want to go to the museum, you know, so I would be game and I go along, and then I'd come out and I would just be an absolute wreck for the next day or two. Like I was just having a life sucked out of me. And I realized that was the problem. It was just extremely draining. So I won't go back there. There's no reason for me to go back. People couldn't go enjoy it without me. Yeah. Well, you know, I wonder and this is kind of my own musings here. But if you think about the reformatory, which of course was a prison for so many years, the kind of emotions that people have. Sure. And and also, you know, a lot of the the history and the tragedy attached to so many objects at the museum, I could understand how that could relate back when, exactly, you're the worst place for me was near the pow exhibit. Again, the woman who brought me into walkthrough place was I think, she said, I think the worst place is and I stopped her and I said, let's see if I can feel it myself. You know, so I was walking around by myself, and it was just awful. And I couldn't. I was like, walking into sort of the air sickening. Very, very dire. And then I vaguely saw that this was the case about exhibits and artifacts from POW camps. And it's like, ah, that's the spot. That's the problem. Okay, that's, that's one of the worst places and then the lady be good exhibits, also had a similar problem there. This was a the plane that crashed in the Libyan desert, right. And the men tried to walk out and failed and perish. There's some thought that they thought they were seeing water beneath them, when they landed in the desert, they saw the dunes as water. So there's just a bit of the plane there. But it's when you walk up to it, it was like stepping over what I would call a circle of influence, you know, you've suddenly got into this area where you can feel something from the plane remnant. The terrorism mens last moments, or just the terror of crashing. There's so much emotion attached to airplanes, aviators get really attached to their planes. Even if something has been torn apart or pieced together. I know during the Second World War, at least they would we use it as planes in other planes to repair them. So you just wonder what was left over. When that happened, you know, when it was put together. So with the lady Bidgood exhibit, in particular, what you experienced was kind of visceral sensation, very visceral, it's, it's sometimes feels like being punched in the stomach. Sometimes it feels like electricity, or running into a brick wall in the dark or having something fly out of the grass into your face unexpectedly. It's really startling. And you'd think I'd be used to it by now. But I'm not. I was scared of ghosts when I was a child. And I guess I sort of got into this as a form of aversion therapy. It hasn't worked. I'm still afraid of them. But I'm mostly retired from going out to places. It's only by accident. You know, if I were before COVID As I were visiting a historic site or something, I might notice something but I've retired from actually visiting people's homes or historic sites that when they've asked me to come in, okay, because it's taxing, essential draining to draining. I have had several friends say that their health improved after they stopped doing this work. And I can see why because it's you're pumping adrenaline you're pumping cortisol Everything is on alert. Going back to the museum that you mentioned the lady be good exhibits, of course. Were there any other exhibits that stand out in your memory? Yeah, the black Mariah, a helicopter that was in Vietnam. Uh huh. Painted dead flat black. And apparently, she flew a lot of classified missions that we still don't know a lot about. But copters there, you can see the bullet holes patched all over her. There's just hundreds of patches all over the skin. And sometimes you can see the pilot sitting in the seat. I think he just again doesn't know he's dead. Is a very grim artifact, if you will. The helicopters very dark. It's got a dark aura around it. It's darkness within. And it's just not someplace I would want to be around. Okay, so pretty negative energy, very negative. And, as I say, we do not know what went on. Although we do know that some people were ferried back, you know, people who were injured were being ferried by this machine. So? Yeah, so they weren't able, as far as you know, they weren't able to identify the identity of this pilot that that scene? No, and, and I was there with one of the historians from the museum. So they said, No, a lot of this stuff is still classified, and it'll be classified for another 50 years or so. Oh, okay. So I don't know anything about how that works in terms of, you know, military classifications, but I guess they can keep things secret as fun as they want to. I've had some good fortune to connect with a former security officer who's now retired that he's confirmed a lot of similar things to what you've described, including the lady be good exhibit and the black Mariah, among some others, the boxcar car yeah, the little children seen playing little boy seen running around the base. And then other guards said that they would come around the corner end of the month modern flight Gallery, and there'd be a whole group of Asian children playing in the hall. Terrifying. Oh, I know, to think. Yeah, it's hard to fathom. But he had also shared that sometimes, you know, he can see he could see details of the apparitions, including the helmet, details of the youth, the uniforms they'd be wearing. And the other interesting thing that he shared, which I haven't read anywhere else was the Glenn Miller exhibit. Oh, that it's known that it emanates big band music. Oh, no, that is new to me, too. I thought that was a bright spot of, you know, positive energy in the midst of right. Yeah, yeah. There's not much, much happy. Many happy ghosts there. That's, that's interesting. I didn't realize that one. They used to be very, very cautious about telling people about ghosts over there. They were I did a TV show locally, and the PR lady had to follow us around and make sure we didn't say anything too awful. And we're finishing up and up walks this immense man guard in uniform and he's armed. He's like, you're the ghost lady. Right? And I said, Yeah, as well. I want to tell you, when I'm here by myself at night, the intercoms come on by themselves and I go and lock myself in the office. Or the PR lady is not want to hear that. Oh just spoil the whole thing, because she had just moments before said, Oh, no, I don't think there's anything there's no ghosts here. Okay. Seriously, she has reasons for that. And, you know, shying away visitors or something, but Right. That was how they used to be, but it's been on, you know, some of the ghost hunting shows they've gotten a lot more publicity. Yeah, that so I think that more likely draw more people than then shy them away personally, but yes, exactly. My God. Do you have any guesses? I know, this is a stretch kind of a fair question. But any thoughts on what the lingering spirits what their message might be or what their dilemma might be that this kept them in the in the building? As I think as I said, you know, aviators do get very attached to their planes, and I could see some young aviator you know, this is He was young and he was killed. And this is the only place he had a good time. You know, this was a good place for him. So he's going to stay choosing to stay. I can also see people not realizing they're dead. And and just being stopped like the helicopter pilot saying, hey, if I just lose the stick once more, I'll find my way back. Which I feel very sorry for ones that you know they're lost. Lost, it's a feeling most of us can relate to at some point in our lives. It's that feeling of disconnection and lone sadness, one of the worst emotions any of us can go through. Whether you're a child wandering the aisles of a supermarket, searching for a distracted parent, or whether you're a hiker who's lost a cell signal, weigh in whether or not you've passed this tree before. Feeling lost starts with a moment of awful realization, followed by a sometimes desperate and forlorn effort to reconnect. This most painful of emotion sums up one of the saddest and most gripping tales connected to this museum. We're going to dive deep into a very real historical drama, and examine its ties to ghostly sightings at the place. When I came across this particular account in my research, my heart sank on contemplating these young man's ultimate sacrifice for our country. As we approach Veterans Day on November 11, let us remember the selfless efforts of countless men and women through the centuries who gave all they had to protect our way of life. As I mentioned earlier, I connected with the former security guard of the museum. While he declined an audio interview, not wanting the attention that might bring he was quite eager to share details of this many unexplainable encounters. During several years station they're disembodied big band music would often waft from the Glenn Miller's exhibit, which contain many instruments, uniforms, and other objects from his days entertaining troops. Mystery figures manifested around the boxcars massive front tire, this B 29 bomber had dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, effectively ending the war. The pow exhibit was known for eerie sounds, and heavy gut wrenching emotional impacts for unsuspecting visitors. The retired security guard explained that whenever he would approach it ghostly figure, they'd usually evaporate before he could get too close for a better inspection. However, I'll never forget a handful of occasions when he'd been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a helmet, laced boots, and fatigues, before the vision would disappear completely. Spotting a full bodied apparition is often considered the holy grail of Ghost Hunters around the world. This gentleman said he'd seen them many times over. His time spent working at the museum changed him, it opened his mind to the world beyond our own. He is certain that something of who we are today lives on after our earthly demise. What struck me as even more intriguing, however, were his claims that full bodied apparitions were most often spotted around the lady be good exhibit. In fact, he'd seen them often enough to recognize when an apparition had wandered from the exhibit itself, down a wide Hall and into other areas of the museum all together. Some number of this group of men, all of whom lost their lives in the Libyan desert, seem to roam the halls and massive exhibit spaces of our treasured United States Air Force Museum. Assuming these manifestations must bring forth from some compelling story, wrought with unresolved throws of emotion, I decided to dig deep into what I could learn of the history. What I found there was more heart wrenching than I could have imagined. It gave me a deeper appreciation for the selfless sacrifice these men made for the cause of freedom. Come here their heartbreaking story, as gathered from historical documents. The lady be good was what's known as a B 24 D liberator, a lumbering tank of an aircraft, which carried heavy payloads over access territory. are working to pound the enemy into submission. Her eager crew of nine young men had been desperate to join the fight. They'd only just arrived in Libya in March 1943. Within a week, they'd been assigned their first and only combat mission to cross the Mediterranean as one of 28 bombers, and pound the living daylights out of military targets in Naples, Italy. When the group took off from the Libyan base at 145 in the afternoon, they flew straight into a massive sandstorm. Lumbering slowly upwards, Lady be good would eventually rise above the weather, where visibility improved considerably. For a time however, the crew thought they might end up fighting the mission alone, as many of her fellow bombers aboard admission when the blowing sand disabled their engines, rendering them powerless to fly above the storm. So many bombers had to limp their way back to base, not lady be good. She would fly on across the sea, along with only about six of the original Squadron, but then suddenly went only 30 miles south of target in Naples. She turned back, she had been the last of the six to do so. The weather had delayed them so much that the sun had set, blanketing the landscape beneath them in darkness, without the accuracy of a visual target. First Lieutenant William Hatton elected to abort the mission, a decision which most certainly saved the lives of innocent Italian civilians. By 1110 That evening, all but one of the bombers had returned safely. I'll be at mostly disabled to the US Army base and Libya. Lady be good, never returned. She had made no distress call. As the hour slipped by one after the other, all assumed she'd suffered trouble over water and crashed into the sea. She and her crew relisted Mia, assumed lost to the waves. For 15 years, the tale of what happened to her remained a mystery. The family members of her crew were left with no explanation of the final moments of their mission. And that's where the story would have remained yet today. If it weren't for the accidental discovery of the planes wreckage by a British oil exploration team in November 1958. She'd been found 440 miles inland, far far away from the deep recesses of the Mediterranean Sea. On this day, the stifling 135 degree heat rising from the desert sands, one group of explorers happened upon one of the most baffling world war two mysteries of that era. She'd been nearly perfectly preserved with no indications of flak or machine gun damage. Only her fuselage had been broken off near the tail. It whereas if the lady be good, had made a graceful belly landing, gliding along the sandy surface of the remote Libyan desert. There she had rested, undisturbed for 15 years. Inside the cruise fleece lined suits worn at freezing high altitudes, hung neatly and rose water cans remained full. Coffee had been brewed, and was still drinkable, inside thermos jugs. All around the site, and all directions as far as the eye could see was nothing but barren dunes, some towering 600 feet, blowing and shifting with the winds. There was no vegetation, no animals, nothing but nature at its barest. The discovery of the craft itself had only deepened the mystery of the fate of her young crew. Although the battery had been drained, the aircraft's radio was in perfect working order. A desert survival kit, along with many MRE rations had been left untouched. The navigators table offered a few tantalizing clues. an ashtray on top of it contained buts from cigarettes, fully smoked at the bottom. Yet near the top of the pile, were many half smoke cigarettes, reflecting the growing nervousness of a navigator unsure of their location, believing the distant uniform surface below them weren't sand dunes, but the ebbs and flows of waves in an angry sea. It was assumed that once the lady be good began losing altitude due to exhausting or fuel, that the lot of them bailed out over what they expected to be the Mediterranean Sea. What surprise awaited them when their feet found the ancient sands of the Libyan desert, their plane. Now a ghostly image of itself without our crew flew on alone, before making an almost perfect belly landing, and one of the most desolate regions on our planet. Immediately after discovering the wreckage in 1958, an exploration group commenced a search for the crews human remains in desperate hopes of finding and bringing the servicemen home. For three months search party after search party come to this 1000 square miles section of the desert, known by locals as cursed by Allah Himself. Those souls lost there do not return. They are not found. A large number of the search party believe the same fate would come to the original Nine man crew. Perhaps they would forever remain where they had fallen. The first sign of their final resting places was revealed 18 miles north of the wreckage site, a civilian member of the search party discovered a pair of flying boots lying beside a barely discernible trail. This led the team to a half dozen parachutes, indicating that the men had managed to gather together after bailing out the small remnants of a trail led the team further north, where the dunes grew taller and into an even greater expanse of the unforgiving desert. heartbreakingly had to doomed crew headed south instead of North. They'd have only had one day's walk to arrive at lady goods, largely intact carcass with her working radio and food and water rations. But having no way of knowing how far the plane had flown, and in what direction, they decided to head north to what they believed would be the sea. They had no idea they were 400 miles into a barren and merciless desert. With no hats to shield them from the sun, and half a canteen of water. They marched onward, various search efforts would go on in the years to come in hopes of somehow coming across the crews bodily remains. Remarkably, in February 1960, members of another British oil exploration team found the remains of five of the nine crew members. They were located a remarkable 85 miles north of the crash site. The remains were found grouped together along with some small personal effects. Among those effects were diaries kept by co pilot Lieutenant Robert toner and Flight Engineer Harold rip slinger. They detailed their desperate attempts at survival from April 5 through April 12 1943. They filled in details that could have been known no other way. These words are precious and tragic to read. But it puts us there with them. And it might shed light as to the tumultuous despair they surely confronted. Come here and Lieutenant Robert toners final words Sunday April 4 1943. Naples 28 planes things pretty well mixed up got lost returning out of gas jumped landed in desert at two o'clock in the morning. No one badly hurt can find John. All others present. Monday started walking Northwest still no John. A few rations, half a canteen of water. one cap full per day. Sun fairly warm, good breeze from Northwest night very cold, no sleep, rested and walked Tuesday rested at 1130 Sun very warm, no breeze spent pm in Hell, no planes etc. Rested until 5pm walked and rested all night. 15 minutes on five off Wednesday. Same routine. Everyone getting weak. Can't get very far. Prayers all the time. Again pm very warm hell can't sleep. Everyone sore from ground. Thursday. Hit sand dunes very miserable. Good wind but continuous blowing of sand. Everyone now very weak. Thought Sam and more. We're all gone. Lamotte eyes are gone. Everyone else's eyes are bad. Still going Northwest. Friday. Shelley rip and more separate and try to go for help. Rest of Us All very weak eyes bad. Not any travel. All want to die. Still very little water. Nights are about 35 Good. Northwind no shelter. One parachute left. Saturday. Still having prayer meetings for help. No signs of anything. A couple of birds. Goodwin from north. really weak now can't walk. pains all over. Still all want to die. Nights very cold. No sleep. Sunday. Still waiting for help. still praying eyes bad. lost all our weight, aching all over. could make it if we had water, just enough left to put our tongue to have hope for help very soon. No rest still same place. Monday, April 12 1943. No help yet. cold night. This was his final entry. With only half a canteen of water among them they had set out and what would have been up to 130 degree heat and a futile attempt to find help. At 1.5 Of the eight reached exhaustion, leaving the remaining three to pursue onward through a haze of delirium and indescribable pain. In May 1960, the remains of one of those three men guys shellye were found another 21 miles north of the site, where the five crew men had been found. And only five days later, a search team would find another of the group of three. Flight Engineer Harold rip slinger, had made it another 26 miles further north. He'd walked in total 132 miles from where he first landed, drinking practically no water along the way. The search efforts were again wrapped up at this point in late May 1960 depressingly to members remains had not been found. And interestingly enough, these two crew men had been the only ones to hail from the great state of Ohio. In special tribute to their lives and tragic deaths. I'm presenting their stories here. Second Lieutenant John s for vaca was the crews 24 year old Bombardier from Cleveland. He was a graduate of John Adams high school and had worked as a riveter with the champion Revit company before enlisting in the army air corps. He was the one crew member who did not rendezvous with the others when the wreck occurred. His remains would be discovered 16 miles northwest at the wreckage site and August 1960 by another British oil team. The configuration of the parachute found along with him, suggested that it did not open properly on his descent. He died instantly on impacting the ground. His canteen was still three quarters of the way full with pristine bacteria free water. His fellow crew members, all of whom survived the initial bailout would come together only a half mile to the southwest of where were vaca. His remains were eventually discovered. It seems his faulty parachute ended up saving him the torturous and slow deaths of his colleagues. His remains were flown to Frankfurt, Germany, where an army mortician positively identified the corpse as that belonging to Lieutenant were vaca. When reporters from the Cleveland Plain Dealer first learned if the discovery they found Lieutenant Werbach his brother, Alex were vaca and informed him of the positive identification. Although the family had held out hope that he would one day return. After 17 years of being missing an action, his family expressed relief that they were finally bringing him home. The remains of the other crew member staff sergeant Vernon more are officially still missing. This 20 year old air gunner was the only member whose remains could not formally be identified. However, a historical review of British Army records dating to 1953 showed that a patrol unit came upon an identifiable human remains directly proximate to where the last two members would be identified much later. 1953 was five years before the lady be good wreckage itself had even been found. Assuming the corpse they discovered belong to some wayfaring. Local lost to the desert sands. The army unit buried it documented their finding, and one about their business. An investigation of the incident was reopened in 2001 and concluded that the size of the skeletal remains match that a sergeant more the young man who held from New Boston, Ohio, on the Ohio River. He'd been one of the three crew members who'd hiked the farthest after the first five fell victim to the worst nature could give. If you go to visit the museum for yourself, and I sincerely hope you do, you'll find the exhibit dedicated to the men who so tragically lost their young lives on this their first combat mission. After the wreck was discovered, numerous parts from the lady be good were returned to the US for technical study. In addition, some parts were installed and other aircraft. Coincidentally, some of those craft suffered difficulties, including the crash of an army outer aeroplane, which took the lives of all 10 men aboard. The exhibit at Dayton's United States Air Force Museum contains original parts of the plane, including a wheel from its landing gear, a propeller, a helmet, and an unused canteen. Also included are many photos and other documents of the Rex original discovery and the exhaustive search to find the missing crew members and bring them home. were drawn to the sprawling museum for many reasons, lots of people go to see military aviation at its best to witness the progression and technology through the decades. And to marvel at what we've accomplished and learning to harness the wind. Many come to pay tribute to the countless men and women who lost their lives in those efforts, whether in the early stages of building and designing the first aircraft, or those who died in combat efforts while a country was at war. A growing number of visitors come after hearing rumors of otherworldly happenings at the place. Ghosts tourism is a kind of industry that's been growing steadily since the advent of paranormal reality shows. While I'm sure a certain number of people come to the museum for this reason, I hope that once they get there, they find another perhaps even deeper purpose for going whether or not ghost loving visitors find spirits among these moving exhibits. I hope they discover the power of the stories behind them. If we're to believe that spirits we call ghosts, our souls lost between worlds, then perhaps a tragedy such as the wreckage of the lady be good exemplifies what it means to be lost, separated from the rest of humanity in an unforgiving climate. These men didn't give up. They went on searching, trying to reconnect with the rest of us. Their ultimate inability to do so shouldn't overshadow the very human strength it took to keep trying until their bodies were out. And contemplating this heart wrenching tale, I've come to recognize that we're all working to stay connected. It's what allows us to survive. In these divisive times. It's worth remembering that if we allow rifts to develop between us and others, if we separate ourselves from the wider community, we all risk a very painful ruling. And we must keep courage keep fighting against the odds and press onward, seeking genuine connection with others. Perhaps someday, the spirits rumored to be those of these valiant crew members of the lady be good will find the connection they've been searching for. Perhaps by honoring their sacrifice, we can show that they've not been forgotten that their young lives full of devotion to a cause larger than themselves, still serves As an example for us all. God bless our veterans and active duty military of the past, present, and future. This concludes today's episode on the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. I hope you've enjoyed it. If so, please consider rating reviewing and subscribing to Ohio folklore on your chosen podcast platform. You can find Ohio folklore at Ohio folklore.com And on Facebook. If you'd like to help others find the show. Please consider writing a review on Apple podcasts. And as always, keep wondering